Principal Message
Last Tuesday the College hosted our 2024 Open Night, a very successful event with over 650 people through the gates to have a look at our college. This happened after a series of terrific visits to Catholic feeder primary schools here in Wagga along with Tumbarumba, Ganmain, Coolaman and Lockhart. I am very grateful to these schools for hosting us. We took along ex-students to re-connect with their school and this is always a great experience for them. I always maintain our students are our best advertisement.
Our Open Night saw talks by myself, guided tours of facilities and a showcase of booths by subject departments, Mount Erin Boarding and other priorities including co-curricular experiences such as sport for our students. The feedback from those who came along was very positive but particularly about our students who represented their college so well. Thank you!
There was a very significant setup for the evening and I’d like to thank, on all our behalves, our very professional business, finance and administration teams led by Andrea Blair, Maintenance and Operations led by Bill Steinmetz acting for Jeff Guymer on leave, Trina Rynehart our Events Manager, our KLA leaders and teachers led by their leaders Peter Hunt and Lauren Verdon, our IT team led by Lance Vogt and our TAS support team who oversaw the food production and service by students. Let's also not forget our performers coordinated by Mel Hale and our Mount Erin Boarding team led by John Bussenschutt, Mick McTaggart and Jacquie Tassall.
All in all a very successful evening due to a real community effort to pull it together.
On 15/2 we held our Swimming Carnival at the Oasis. From one perspective it was a successful event. Many students swam, some records were broken and our student house leaders whipped up a very energised vibe with their houses. Congratulations to Mr Price and all staff on a well-run carnival.
However, some other statistics are giving us pause to reconsider how this event can be run for all students if possible.
We are a college of 1000. Taking into account those who were unwell and had concert tickets in Melbourne we estimate we had 150 away from those causes. From the remaining 850, 500 signed out early or left by bus at the end of the day not attending the carnival. Of the 350 at the carnival 200 had been signed out by parents before the carnival ended leaving 150 to watch relays and carry the burden of clean up at the end.
Given the loss of learning across two days of school- non laptop Thursday and a pupil free day Friday we have to reconsider the viability of the carnival in its current form. 500 students did not attend the carnival yet took Friday off.
We are further concerned that at enrolment time everyone agrees to support such college activities. This seems to last as long as student resistance on the day. Something to further discuss. I am just alerting you to the concern at this point.
No decisions have been made but I think we’d all agree the data on support for the carnival is a concern. The carnival has to happen at that time of the year as it follows a carnival timeline through the diocese, CCC, and NSW All Schools. Feedback will be sought before any decisions are made.
Please check your email for the Working in Partnership Policy document from CEDWW. This is an encouraging document about the vital partnership between the school and families and how to make that a productive and positive partnership which we all want to ensure the best interests of our young people are served. Please have a good read of it so you are across what it means for us all.
At this point, we have vacancies for two members of our Kildare College Advisory Council. Please email me if interested with an outline of your background and how you feel you would meet the requirements of this important role. The KCC College Council is an important body to support myself and the College Leadership Team in our decision making and planning. I rely on their advice as a very important component of our conversation. The policy guidelines from CEDWW are here
Parents of Years 7 /8 might find this useful, as a way to be a parent of the college community for a four year tenure or other years if you’ll still be parents at KCC for some time to come.
Just to clarify regarding the newly instituted compulsory Building Levy by CEDWW. This has been brought in to build up a capital Infrastructure fund that can support building projects. In the past few years, I know there have been major developments at Sacred Heart Kooringal, St Joseph’s Junee and Holy Trinity Ashmont which have been funded directly by CEDWW, borrowing by CEDWW and grants from the Commonwealth Government. With these three schools, there was no impact on families. Unfortunately in the current financial environment in building- interest rates and rising costs extra support is required. Hence a building levy has been introduced. Kildare families will benefit from this fund in the next couple of years to the tune of $1.5 million approximately, perhaps more as we get the redevelopment of Kildare off the ground. There has already been significant preparatory work done at cost to CEDWW so far for which we are very grateful. I am conscious this has come from the infrastructure fund that our collective building fund contributions help grow.
Our grant application is to go in this October, hopefully for a late 2025 start. It will be great to see the Kildare families supported with new facilities.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the college.
